February 2026 Second Half

 

February 2026

Second Half

February continued with nicer weather good enough to have some longer walks in our local park with daffodils and hawthorn blossom emerging as the weather warmed. I had a phone call to an old friend, Les, from the model railway side of Whitewebbs Transport Museum. He had been the custodian of my model engines I had built in the early 80s until he had a stroke and left the museum leaving them with the office for me to collect. I had not been to the museum for over a year and decided to put that right. Another old friend is George, who also has not been well, I contacted to him to see if he wanted he wanted to go to the museum. It turned into a very social day for both of us. I collected my models and met some new faces at the museum and enjoyed the new display of bikes.

Chris is the lead for motorcycles at the museum and is also an active member of the LE Owners Club has reorganise the first floor display after the new lift was installed to make sufficient space for wheelchair access and found bikes to fill the space vacated by the loss of the Rex Judd collection and the loss of the valuable 1898 Holden. Sad for the museum but being a charity they had insufficient funds (millions) to buy the collection but other interesting bikes have replaced them. Museums that change their displays regularly are worth returning regularly.

Another fine day and spent some time in the back garden. The chimenea was moved to the middle of the lawn to burn some old wood and the rear supporting leg fell off. Part of the cast iron body had rusted away around the attachment bolts of the rear leg. Easy repair by putting a plate inside with new bolts to secure the leg in place.  It was tested out later with a warm glow lasting into the evening.

Last thing for the month was a visit to a jewellery faire at Kempton Park. It was not just gems necklaces and earrings but had quartz and bits of petrified wood and crystal balls. This was Gita’s element another skill hidden for years. It was just like me going to a bike show. Ooh! I like that and that and that! She made jewellery until life got in the way and now stimulated by the faire she bought a new stock of things to start making bits again.

February 2026 First Half

 

February 2026

First Half

We had a very wet January and the start of February was no better. Observed Sunday forced me into a car for my first attendance at the club meeting for 2026 at the new venue Normandy Village Hall. A new route to learn with satnav prompts and choosing different routes for me to follow each time it is programmed. Why does it do that? Despite the miserable weather there was a good turnout of bikes made resplendent by weak sun and pale shadows.

I had a meeting at home with a 2CV club member who was planning a trip through South Africa and wanted to know what mods I had done to the El Cid for my Endurance Rally around Morocco in 2004. With Adrian, my brother, navigating we came 19^th out of 33 entrants and first in our class. A good few hours of discussion took place that evening and great to pass on useful information and jog my memory.

I have an old remote hard drive that I needed some information from and when I plugged it in to my Windows 10 PC it didn’t work requiring a USB connection and not an ethernet one. To retrieve the information I needed to buy appropriate adaptors and power supplies. Chat GPT helped immensely to get the right components. All available on E-Bay and arriving in a few days.

With visits to the dentist, just a check-up and no drama followed by a trip to Charing Cross and a visit o the Neurology department to check my connections were still working was a torture of electric shocks and needles. The shocks gave me involuntary movements in limbs and face and the pins showed movement. There was a grotesque picture of me gurneying. It was a good job it lasted momentarily. Can you imagine the scenario of walking into hospital normally and leaving a twitchy wreck. I used public transport this day to support ULEZ  and got a fictitious  charge on my account for a journey I did not do in the Burton. It is a better method now of being able to challenging it on line.

I completed changing the shower thermo cartridge after many weeks of procrastination doing the job was easier than the thought of doing it and now have hot water in all the right places. I stripped the old one down to find out how it works and discovered there was not much wrong with it other than a bit of wear and no greace to keep it running smoothly and plug the gaps on the shaft and splines.

On the few fine days I started the Burton after a couple of months to check everything was still working then the El Cid to make sure the windscreen wipers were still working for the planned visit to the French car meeting at Blackbushe Airport. There was the dry ride on the Buell via Amersham a combination of A roads, lanes and motorways to complete a circuit.

For some reason the upgrade of Edge caused me enormous problems that include links in emails, slowed my PC down to a crawl and disrupted many of the operational software. To sort it out I had to reinstall the Edge program. This rectified many things including the speed of the Windows 10 PC. It is now obvious to me that Windows wants me to buy a new PC for their newest operating system, not offering an upgrade. Making life even more difficult by making you look for the specifications of the PC to see whether it is upgradable and what it can be upgraded to. Where do you find this information. All this is to make everything more expensive and ties you into them with systems you now have to pay for like 365, cloud storage, even PDFs all of which require internet access to work. Useless when travelling even in the UK.

We had a lovely evening out at the Becks Theatre seeing the Dire Straits tribute band “Money for Nothing” giving renditions of Telegraph Road and Love Over Gold. It was a night to remember.

 

January 2026

 

January 2026

 

I have been trapped by the weather it being too wet or too cold. At the beginning of the month frost and snow enough to have had Observed Sunday cancelled allowing me to stay in bed warm. There are now safety guidelines that gatherings should not take place if it is 5C and below. Sensible really especially in rural areas unexpected pockets of ice can catch you out particularly on Sunday mornings when traffic is light. When it wasn’t freezing there were gray skies and rain, rain and more rain. Not good for arthritis but I managed to do some walking pretty much every day to get rid of the stiffness in my joints. I often feel like I am losing the use of my legs.

Ice on the canal

As the weather was not good I set about sorting out a problem with the showers in the house. The upstairs one works with good temperature control but the thermal valve leaks a little. However the downstairs one gets no hot water at all. After a Corgi call out about it the diagnosis was the upstairs shower thermal valve was damaged to the extent that it allowed hot and cold water to mix rendering all the hot taps down stairs cool. I then set about ordering a new thermal valve. Apparently not the right one. Weeks later I still have not tracked down the right one. I will have to remove the valve, take measurements and photos and to do this I will have to turn the water supply off. No water, you can prepare for but no heating at this time of year is a disaster.

Tap into disaster

On one cloudy but dry for a bit day I escaped on the Buell on a forty mile loop to Amersham and returning via Beaconsfield and a blat along the M40 back home. The roads were dry except one short section which was muddied by HS2 work between Beaconsfield and High Wickham. It stretched from a tee junction over two close roundabouts. Covering the Buell and me with mud splats. It now needs washing as does my gear. The joys of winter riding.

Buell after the ride

Gita and I received a Christmas present that was a Spa break at a Warner hotel. A bit of luxury at a posh hotel that has swimming pool, sauna and massage parlour. We enjoyed it all with lots of food and entertainment. It could have been Hotel California but not quite as the entertainment for Saturday night was Talon an Eagles tribute band and they were excellent. While there we did walks along the Thames which was flowing so fast and only inches away from bursting its banks. It is a chain hotel and there are a number throughout the country it is a thought for other breaks throughout the year and with entertainment.

 I have not used the El Cid or the Burton since last year. After breaking the fan pulley wheel and overheating the engine of the El Cid I thought it would be prudent to change the engine oil. This I did on a cold dry day. Making a mess and just getting everything tidied up before the weather changed it was a chore that needed to be done before I forgot about it.

December 2025

 

December 2025

 

December started in India staying with my sister-in-law, Bhonti her son Ankur and her mother. We had travelled to Delhi for a memorial of Gita’s brother who had passed away in May. Having just got back in April we were unable to go again for the funeral in May. Our visas had expired. Our son Amit was also with us on this trip. He was going on a spiritual experience in Coimbatore.

 At the beginning of the visit Chinmoy and Lakhu from Assam joined us in Delhi making it a very special time. It was a bit like having an early Christmas but being away I missed the December Observed Sunday and the subsequent move from Cobham Village Hall to Normandy Village Hall for the January Observed Sunday. The roads have fewer restrictions and less traffic that should make getting out into the countryside easier and quicker for tuition sessions.

I was back in time for the Thames Tortoises Christmas meal on the club night, third Monday of the month. Only three of us to enjoy the evening, Richard, Peter and myself. I have been given a challenge to take some photos of the modifications made to the El Cid for the Sahara Challenge I did in 2004. This was having installed protection plates for the sump and the petrol tank. I had been warned by the experts that there should be no space for stones to get into. The best thing is to have foam to ensure this. It gives room for impacts from rocks and stones room for the plate to move to and not damage what you to protect. The sponge also stops small stones from getting into that space and causing damage.

The next night was the LE club night and also there was a Christmas meal. Earlier in the evening and not at our usual pub. When we finished we continued at our usual venue, with Chris. Antony, Phil and myself in attendance. It was a very social evening exchanging Christmas cards and knowledge. Another festive night out.

Christmas was a family affair made most enjoyable by having the grandchildren present with all the chaos that surrounds them when they have too much energy that cannot be dissipated in a small house. There were frequent walk to parks and excursions to any activity that kept them busy. The highlight was going ten pin bowling with the kids doing better than the adults at Westfield. What a place and I found the place difficult to get to with the volume of traffic, parking and finding the bowling alley an unpleasant experience. It is just too big with too many people. It annoys me you have to pay a tenner just to park! I can go to Uxbridge, pay £2 for parking and no hassle and still go bowling.

Before that experience it was another French Car Day at Blackbushe airport with another gathering of Citroen friends. It was so cold that retiring to the cafe for a hot drink was essential. We all had a pleasant hour staying out of the cold before it was time to head for home.

November 2025

 

November 2025

The weather has changed along with the clocks. Halloween has just been celebrated and Gita and I joined in at Darlingtons in Aylesbury for an early meal at the café. A gruesome cocktail with spiders' web soup. A very pleasant start to the evening. I needed an early night as there was an early start in the morning for the Wey Valley Observed Sunday. 

It was a wet start and I took the car. I would have to wash a bike if I went out on it. The Buell was back home and I would have like a ride on it but not today although it would be better later, later was not now. Today there were detours for junction ten on the M25 so I went through Walton to get to Cobham arriving at the village hall at around 8:30. This meeting was different. John was away and Bob was taking over and his first time in his new career. The shop was already laid out and ready to go. Nothing much for me to do. There were only a handful of people but it was soon buzzing after an hour and were selling lots of stickers and not much else. The sun was out and roads were drying. A good time to do my morning photo round of the car park. Soon after the announcements we started to pack stuff away. Bob found a discrepancy with the stock list not discovered before creating more work with everyone checking every thing again and again. I needed to leave to go to Norfolk. 

This was the start of the problems for the day. I returned home and was caught out by the roadworks and diversions and made my way home by a much longer route. Gita needed the car while I was away at Martham with my brothers for the week. I changed cars and loaded up the El Cid. It is over three-hour drive time and should arrive before it gets dark. My departure time was 2:15. Later than I wanted to be. I had just got on to the M25 and straight into a jam. Crawling for an hour and stationary for half of that time I cleared the obstruction and was making good progress again. Stopping for fuel just on the A14 after two and a half hours and I had still one and a half to go. I was starting to get dark as I left the services and plagued with inappropriate lights on cars and lorries that slowed my progress because I just could not see, much to the annoyance of the drivers causing the problem. Eventually arriving at Martham boatyard about half six and feeling quite stressed at how the day had gone. Give me beer!

The next day was more serene with a gentle walk, a cruise in the boat and a grand meal at the Nelson Head in Horsey. This was the pattern for the week with a bit of sailing thrown in. 

Testing out the new type of electric outboard and light weight lithium battery was a new experience gaining confidence in each expedition. It turned out to be very successful removing any battery life anxiety. I had become so destressed I didn’t manage to get to the Norfolk Motorcycle Museum this year.

The return journey presented its’ own challenges. Early Saturday morning to miss the traffic it was a breeze negotiating roadworks without holdups. Stopping on the A14 just before the M11 for a break and fuel it was time to say goodbye to my brothers before they headed off for Bristol by the northerly route. Progress was good until on the M11 there was no charge. I thought it was the fan belt broken, or the flywheel come adrift. None of which could be a problem and fixed when I got home. When on the M25 progress was slowed by the sheer volume of traffic and only then I became aware of something more serious. There was a rattle at low revs that went as the revs increased. That worried me. Even more so that there was nowhere to stop. Smart motorways had become death traps. The engine was still running. Keep going until you have to stop. It might just be in a better place. I continued at a steady pace and finally just a mile from home I had to stop at traffic lights then smoke crept out from under the bonnet. It did not smell like a fire. The lights changed. We were still running. It was an agonising few minutes before I swung into my drive at home and was able to stop.

Home and time to see what was wrong. The fan belt was still there and so was the centre boss of the flywheel but it was not connected. The flywheel had broken free from the centre boss. The engine was no longer fan cooled and had over heated using a bit of oil and the smoke was oil on the outside of the oil cooler. I borrowed the fan from the van engine in the garage to keep the El Cid operational and did that in a few hours. It seems that there was no damage done through overheating but as a precaution I will need to change the oil.

 I was out on the Buell as soon as the weather permitted with a forty mile round trip via Amersham. A pleasant drive not highlighting any problems. The weather turned colder and I suffered from it I used the El Cid to go to the Thames Tortoises club night in Ashford discovering that the windscreen wipers would not work and the fan belt cover had worked loose both of which I fixed the next day. The wipers soon worked again with a touch of WD40 backed up with spray grease to keep the rain out. It took a bit longer to secure the cover over the alternator pulley wheel as the cover edges needed reworking to get the right shape then it fitted securely. That evening it was LE club night. It was unusually cold in the pub but it was an evening of warm reunion with a member managing to get to us after a delay of five years. There was a lot of catching up. Then it snowed. I have no memory of it ever having snowed this early in November fortunately it didn’t settle and was gone in an hour. This prompted me to get on with garden preparations for winter like turning the irrigation system off covering the garden chairs to protect them from the ravishes of winter, pruning roses and a quick repair job on a lose panel with one hand and electric screwdriver in the other not only screwed it down but also my finger.  Had to unscrew the screw to release my finger. Stupid really as I was holding and supporting the parts and my finger was where the screw ended up. I’ll stay out of the garden for a bit. It’s too dangerous for me.

 

 

 

 

October 2025

 

October 2025

 

October is the month for funerals. My dad died in October  my mum did as well. One of our very good friends was added to the list and a trip to Barnsley was needed. I feel that this month we need to change our names to Mister and Misses De’Ath. Too many people we know have left this world. I refer to Zuben Garg the famous Assamese pop star and I was lucky enough to be invited to the UK Premiere of his movie about drugs and gangs while he was here. A message for the youth of Assam.

Another Observed Sunday and the A3 closed again so I had to do another detour to get around the problem. All was not bad. This Sunday another Club magazine “Intercom” was issued and contained one of my articles “Who is Jugal Bailung?” It was about a short video of my first Ride to Arunachal in January this year. Nice to see my Assamese friends get some credit.

I have new spots for the El Cid. Those I fitted in 1997 have lost their lustre. Still working but with corroded reflectors needed sorting so I set about rewiring as the fittings were different. So were the mounting brackets.  Having got that done I checked the rocker oil feeds for oil-tightness while there was access as I had a problem at Easter. All was good. There was a leak on the exhaust. I thought it was the heat exchanger but it turned out to be the joints needing reseating. Also I put some silicone sealant on the gaps at the front of the exchanger to stop any free exhaust gases from getting in the cab. It had been quite smelly on the last trip.

We had a trip to Bristol in the C3 for my Sister-in-Laws’ funeral. On the way we went via Yeovil to drop the gearbox and parts off a Ric Pembro’s for assembly. Gita and I had set aside the whole week for family and any jobs we needed to do. The funeral was quite beautiful with a non-religious service celebrating her life marked by a poem of love written and spoken by one of her cousins. Yet again being so close to death and understanding your own mortality I have been stirred into more action. A book from the grandchildren “A gift from us to you for us”.  They want me to tell the stories of my childhood and my adulthood of me and my family before it all gets lost in the mists of time and poor memories. I confess, I don’t think I’ll ever finish it as my memories merge with theirs.

It was another French car day at Blackbushe Airport. I left early but got snarled up in traffic on the A312 just down the road from my house and languished in the queue before I could get out of the traffic and go through Hayes  to pick up the M4. Once on the motorway it was a relatively quick trip. It was great to meet up with members of the Thames Tortoises as there no longer seems to be monthly club meetings. The day had started in lovely sunshine  and deteriorated to cloud and cold drizzle. I left early to keep ward. I was beeped at by a kind gentleman who told me I had a flat tyre on the slip road of junction 3 of the M4. No sooner as I was on the A312 the tyre was completely flat. I found a place to stop just before the roundabout and changed the wheel. Another kind gentleman stopped to give me assistance but it was not needed. The flat was caused by a perished valve that had lasted less than three years.  

Two tyres and valves were changed when they were fitted in 2022 before going to Spain. I had a rest day on Sunday and Monday I was heading for the tyre place that had changed and fitted the tyres in 2022 but ran again into the traffic jam that was still there from Saturday and I abandoned the gripe mission and went to another tyre place that has more reliable services. A successful morning and with grandchildren staying with us little more could be done that day. Managed to repair one of the suspension cans. They are too good to cut down as a temporary solution for the van. Painted them the next day. After a couple of wet days it was fine enough to take the Buell for a run out. A forty mile trip, a tense ride. It was a journey into the unknown as problems had side-lined  it for a year. A good shakedown run with everything working as it should and the engine getting smoother as every mile passed. It was still dry in the afternoon to fit the suspension cans to the van to get them out of the garage.

September 2025

 

September 2025

 Surprisingly Observed Sunday was moved from the first Sunday of the month to the last Sunday of August. There was an observers training course that could not be rescheduled so something had to change. The changed meant I could not attend the shop as I was on a family holiday in Barcelona with the grandchildren. I was busy doing DIY in youngest daughter’s flat in between relaxing and site-seeing. When I got home it was time to write the August posting and articles about the bike ride in Arunachal and my view about electric bicycles and scooters another form of Powered Two Wheelers (PTW). I had the MOT for the Kawasaki and it passed, so good for another year and chased up the progress of the repairs on the Buell. Having changed my PC the program for my Kodak printer was lost. It was too old for Windows 10 and no longer supported. I have a twelve year old notebook that runs on Windows 7 and I loaded the software from, the original disc and it worked. I am no longer using it for printing but it is excellent for scanning far better than my Cannon MP272 that does the printing.

At the beginning of the month I was doing work in the garden getting things tidied up before autumn and winter removing dead plants and digging up an anti-social bamboo that was spreading around my garden and a wisteria that had taken over the front of the house.

The left side screen had dropped at the British Motor Show and had no idea why was it the heat or an attempted break-in? I investigated by removing the under-wing protective shields that I made after some rust removing and painting on the sub-frame. I had not looked at it since then and that was 2016. All was good. The support for the windscreen was in good order so there was no structural reason for the change in position of the side screen. The right side screen is still in the position when it was first fitted and has much more use than the left one. I made them both and I know how strong they are.

I was on a mission to be at Registers Day. I had parts to buy at the event and be part of the show. Registers Day is on the Sunday of the two day event. I drove down to Bristol on the Saturday and stayed with my brother Adrian. We went together to be day visitors on the Sunday at Westbury on Severn. We chose the scenic route which was delightful going over the old Severn bridge passing through Chepstow, Lydney, Blakeney and Newnham. It turned out to be a successful event with more cars putting on a display than I had seen before.

 I managed to talk to Paul who is Mehari Registrar for 2CV GB and I ask him about the article I has written about making the new hood for the El Cid as he had not publish anything in the magazine for months.  The article would be coming soon as life had taken over and left little time for anything else. Coops was also there and I spoke to him a new cover for the Burton. I had a great time talking to Paul’s son about the hood and my adventures in India I did not manage to pick up the spares I needed for the El Cid. There was to prize giving for the best car or variant in their class. I didn’t win anything for the El Cid and we headed off back to Chipping Sodbury around four taking the taking the M5 from Chepstow dipping in and out of the Welsh 20mph speed limits before escaping back to England.

Monday had us visiting Martin of Cotswold Classics to pick up some large diameter suspension cans then on to Simon for a better left front wing in Cam. The old one had too many rust holes and was too bad to repair. Next moth there will be more on the van.

I had my laptop with me and did more on my family history for the grandchildren. T hey had given me a Christmas present a sort of diary to record all I could remember of my family and their activities in a book “Dear Grandad from you to me”. This will more than fill the book. I have 20 years work of regular articles in the LE club magazine, nearly 300 postings on my blog and that is only about bikes and cars. I have written nothing about my working life in NHS Pathology.

On Wednesday Barry, Adrian and me went to Bristol and visited Vee Shed which is situated in Bristol docks with the “Matthew” moored in front of it. A brotherly expedition to the cultural centre of local history. It had become a more people oriented museum and less of local industrial history.

 They still have some displays like the Peckett steam engine, a Douglas Dragon Fly, a Thanet bicycle, the Brabazon made at Filton also where Concorde first flew from. I saw it take off from where I lived on Shortwood Hill. I could see Mangotsfield in the valley and across Filton all the way to the Severn Bridge and the Welsh hills beyond. All of the old stuff was in storage and we talked to one guy who was restoring a goods van that had become weather damaged. He was hoping to have it repaired for the up and coming event on the docks in about a weeks’ time. We paid a visit to the Brompton shop for Adrian to have a look at some new bicycles and then to Weatherspoons for lunch before making our way home on the bus.

An uneventful journey home the next day and the week finished with me refitting the weather shields to the under wings which was more difficult than taking the off. I had to make an extended spanner to reach the nuts hidden by the wing and the length of the plates. My hands are bigger now and not as flexible to get in the space available and hold a spanner.